Red Boots

When I was small I had red boots
How I adored them, I marked each shoe
‘L’ and ‘R’, lest I wore them wrong
Lest someone saw and laughed,
Lest I ceased to belong.

I would dance on demand, I’d pirouette
For a clap of hands, a compliment
Till my father saw me in those red boots,
trying hard to please. “Never dance for nobody,”
he said, “unless YOU want to!”

I soon out grew those red boots
and forgot them as little girls do
But I remembered what my father said that day
That day when I was dancing
To a tune I neither heard nor played.

Since that day I dance for the stars, the moon,
I dance to hide the scars, to music strewn
in my soul, I dance for me
I don’t care if it displeases you
Yes, you may have noticed, I do not dance to your tune.